Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman and Hall “Tales of AllCountries” edition , email
Circumstances took me to the HolyLand without a companion, and compelled me to visit Bethany, theMount of Olives, and the Church of the Sepulchre alone. Iacknowledge myself to be a gregarious animal, or, perhaps, ratherone of those which nature has intended to go in pairs. Atany rate I dislike solitude, and especially travelling solitude,and was, therefore, rather sad at heart as I sat one night atZ—’s hotel, in Jerusalem, thinking over my proposedwanderings for the next few days. Early on the followingmorning I intended to start, of course on horseback, for the DeadSea, the banks of Jordan, Jericho, and those mountains of thewilderness through which it is supposed that Our Saviour wanderedfor the forty days when the devil tempted him. I would thenreturn to the Holy City, and remaining only long enough torefresh my horse and wipe the dust from my hands and feet, Iwould start again for Jaffa, and there catch a certain Austriansteamer which would take me to Egypt. Such was myprogramme, and I confess that I was but ill contented with it,seeing that I was to be alone during the time.
I had already made all my arrangements, and though I had noreason for any doubt as to my personal security during the trip,I did not feel altogether satisfied with them. I intendedto take a French guide, or dragoman, who had been with me forsome days, and to put myself under the peculiar guardianship oftwo Bedouin Arabs, who were to accompany me as long as I shouldremain east of Jerusalem. This travelling through thedesert under the protection of Bedouins was, in idea, pleasantenough; and I must here declare that I did not at all begrudgethe forty shillings which I was told by our British consul that Imust pay them for their trouble, in accordance with theestablished tariff. But I did begrudge the fact of thetariff. I would rather have fallen in with my friendlyArabs, as it were by chance, and have rewarded their fidelity atthe end of our joint journeyings by a donation of piastres to besettled by myself, and which, under such circumstances, wouldcertainly have been as agreeable to them as the stipulatedsum. In the same way I dislike having waiters put down inmy bill. I find that I pay them twice over, and thus losemoney; and as they do not expect to be so treated, I never havethe advantage of their civility. The world, I fear, isbecoming too fond of tariffs.
“A tariff!” said I to the consul, feeling that thewhole romance of my expedition would be dissipated by such anarrangement. “Then I’ll go alone; I’lltake a revolver with me.”
“You can’t do it, sir,” said the consul, ina dry and somewhat angry tone. “You have no moreright to ride through that country without paying the regularprice for protection, than you have to stop in Z—’shotel without settling the bill.”
I could not contest the point, so I ordered my Bedouins forthe appointed day, exactly as I would send for a ticket-porter athome, and determined to make the best of it. The wildunlimited sands, the desolation of the Dead Sea, the rushingwaters of Jordan, the outlines of the mountains ofMoab;—those things the consular tariff could not alter, nordeprive them of the glories of their association.
I had submitted, and the arrangements had been made. Joseph, my dragoman, was to come to me with the horses and anArab groom at five in the morning, and we were to encounter ourBedouins outside the gate of St. Stephen, down the hill, wherethe road turns, close to the tomb of the Virgin.
I was sitting alone in the public room at the hotel, fillingmy flask with brandy,—for matters of primary importance Inever leave to servant, dragoman, or guide,—when the waite